The special Budweiser beer developed by the Anheuser-Busch InBev workers at the Columbus brewery didn't make the final cut in the company's Project 12 competition. Anheuser-Busch InBev announced this week that Budweiser beers created in Los Angeles, St. Louis and Williamsburg, Va., will be available this fall as part of a special variety 12-pack.

If you recall, the brewmasters at the 12 Anheuser-Busch breweries in the U.S. created "tribute" beers as part of a friendly companywide competition. The 12 beers, which were named after the ZIP codes where they were made, were pared to six to take part in a summer-long sampling effort. Budweiser Small Batch 43229, a light amber lager developed in Columbus, made the final six, but didn't finish in the top three after the sampling.

"We've never done anything like this before," Budweiser Vice President Rob McCarthy said in a prepared statement. "With all this feedback from consumers, I guess you can call this the largest focus group in Budweiser hisotry, maybe even beer history. There really were not winners or losers with Project 12, but we would up with three great beers that slightly edged out the others. It certainly wasn't an easy choice. Best of all, we listened to what our beer drinkers told us and we let them help us make the decision about what to bring to stores."